Positive and Negative Impacts of Mental Models

Statement of the Problem

            It is said that mental models both have positive and negative impacts in web tracking technology. Hence, these impacts must be investigated and lessons must be learned and derived from this study.

Purpose of the Study

This study will be conducted in order to determine the positive and negative impacts of mental models in web tracking technology, and provide meaningful lessons.

            This study will also aim to increase the awareness and provide a better understanding of the issues and problems concerning most mental models in order to contribute an effective approach in addressing their problems.

Significance of the Study

If the positive and negative impacts of mental models in web tracking technology will be determined, this study will be a benefit to other multinational companies employing mental models in their technologies and are experiencing problems gaining ground to other parts of the world. Also, if effectiveness is supported, this study will be significant in developing mental models as productive and effective bodies of knowledge in the future.

 

Research Questions

Specifically this study will address the following questions:

1.      What positive and negative impacts of mental models in web tracking technology were determined?

2.      What specific alternatives or measures can be done to help improve the performance of mental models in web tracking technologies?

Assumptions

The research will be based on the following assumptions: (a) all participants will be utilizing the correct procedures as outlined in the guidelines for the specific methodology employed, and (b) all participants will answer questions honestly to the best of their ability.

Limitations

Time will be the greatest limitation to this research, which could hinder long-term outcome objectives. Environmental factors, such as socioeconomic status, will not be controlled, and this could create many variables within the research. As this study will utilize a small sample of respondents, the results may not effectively represent the general population.    

Conceptual Framework 

  

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Mental Model Defined

Mental models describe one’s fundamental worldview, which is reinforced by structures, experiences, cultures, and belief systems. Mental models guide and direct people as they make decisions, and are used to filter ideas and possibilities. Mental models are very difficult to change because they encompass one’s values, beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions. 

Mental Models and Learning

Theories and literature regarding mental models flourish leadership, training, efficiency, customer orientation; the record goes on and on. One of the mainly recent and widely accepted notions is that of the mental models, characterized by a culture, pervasive throughout the firm, dedicated to improving workers, their productivity, and overall business performance via continuous lifelong learning through mental models. Yet it was not thought that the tenets of the mental models represent the epitome of organizational development. Although learning is a prerequisite to development, it is not the desired outcome; simply increasing an organization’s reservoir of knowledge through mental models does not necessarily produce better business results. Taking learning to its highest form to development through mental models enables employees to reach their full potential, while organizations focus on outcomes that produce better business results. Thus, the final phase of organizational transformation is that of the developmental organization. 

Mental models and their evolution                   

There is an evolution that every organization can experience the transformation from a traditional to a developmental organization through the use of mental models. Three identifiable types of organizations that use mental models exist along this evolutionary plane: the traditional organization, the learning organization, and the developmental organization. What separates one type from another is the importance of mental models in achieving strategic business goals and objectives, the organization’s capacity for renewal, and the firm’s desire to improve competitive readiness through mental models. As with every evolutionary process, it may be difficult to determine exactly where one is at any given period. Often, only when the evolutionary phase has been completed does one know for sure that he or she has passed through it. Much has been written recently about the nature of the mental models, particularly the importance of learning to the development. Beyond the mental models lie the epitome of individual and organizational growth and performance. Learning itself does not guarantee employee or business growth and development. Developmental organizations extend themselves further along the evolutionary plane, engaging in mental models that promote and reward long-term individual and organizational growth.

Mental Models and Learning Organization

The second phase of evolution is the learning organization. According to (Morgan:1986), the learning organization is an institution that learns powerfully and collectively through the use of mental models, continually transforming itself to better manage and use knowledge for corporate success, empowering people within and outside the organization to learn as they work and to utilize mental models to maximize learning and production. In recent years, several business leaders have begun to focus attention on the use of mental models for organizational learning.

The management of organizations must alter the environment to support and encourage learning through mental models, link mental models to business operations, communicate the importance of the learning organization and mental models, demonstrate their commitment to learning, transform the organizational culture to one of continuous learning and improvement through mental models, and establish organization-wide mental model strategies for learning in order to make the transition from the traditional to the learning organization. In addition, eliminating organizational bureaucracy, encourage employee involvement and embrace continuous, adaptive improvement-oriented learning approaches throughout the organization is also important in changing organizational phase.

The management must focus on improving learning capacity through mental models as well as encouraging self-directed learning behavior for all employees. Learning organizations are as concerned about market share, productivity, and profitability as the traditional organization; they understand that learning is the key to acquiring greater business results. Nevertheless, the orientation of the learning organization is simply learning through mental models.

 

            BMHS management incorporates several important dimensions and characteristics: • Learning is accomplished by organizational systems as a whole, almost as if the organization were a single brain.  •  Organizational members recognize the critical importance of ongoing organization-wide learning for the organization’s current and future success.  •  Learning is a continuous, strategically used process, integrated with and running parallel to work.  •  There is a focus on creativity and generative learning.  •  System thinking is fundamental. 

            Andersonc and Fornell (1994) focus on the individual’s role in learning organizations, maintaining that real, effective learning isn’t individual, but social. They also explain that true learning is anything but a passive activity, and the most important stuff for people to learn in organizations is not the explicit stuff of rules, procedures, and so forth, but tacit (intuition, expertise, common sense, core competencies, and the like). They further assert that real learning takes place as part of the work itself, not in sterile training environments or in solitary.

 

 

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